Norway was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song "Stress", composed by Tor Hultin, with lyrics by Ola B. Johannessen, and performed by Odd Børre. The Norwegian participating broadcaster, (NRK), organised the national final 1968 to select its entry for the contest. The national final was won by the song "," performed by Kirsti Sparboe and Odd Børre, but when the song's composer withdrew, NRK internally selected the runner-up as its entry for the contest.

Before Eurovision

1968 (NRK) held the 1968 on 3 March 1968 at its studios in Oslo, hosted by Jan Voigt.

Five performers and songs took part in the final, with each song sung twice by different singers, once with a small combo and once with a full orchestra. The winning song was chosen by voting from ten regional juries. The winning song was "" performed by both Kirsti Sparboe and Odd Børre.

+ MGP – 3 March 1968ArtistSongPointsPlace Combo Orchestra 1 Per Asplin Nora Brockstedt "Nysgjerrig-Per" 4 4 2 Kirsti Sparboe Odd Børre "Stress" 14 2 3 Nora Brockstedt Per Müller "Nordlys" 10 3 4 Kirsti Sparboe Odd Børre "Jeg har aldri vært så glad i noen som deg" 20 1 5 Per Müller Per Asplin "Ingenmannsland" 2 5

Internal selection On 7 March, four days after was held, "" was withdrawn by its composer Kari Diesen amid persistent allegations that it plagiarised the 1963 hit "Summer Holiday" by Cliff Richard (who would go on to ), which prompted NRK to instead select the runner-up, "Stress", as its entry for Eurovision. Odd Børre was also internally selected as the performer.

At Eurovision On the evening of the contest, Børre performed 13th in the running order, following the United Kingdom and preceding . Each national jury had 10 points to distribute between the songs, and at the close, "Stress" had picked up 2 points (1 each from and ), placing Norway joint 13th (with and ) out of 17 entries. The Norwegian jury awarded 6 of its 10 points to .

The conductor of the Norwegian entry was Øivind Bergh.

Voting

+ Points awarded to Norway Score Country 1 point

+ Points awarded by Norway Score Country 6 points 2 points 1 point

References